


The First Time

by TrueMyth



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1 Things, F/M, Fab Four, Mentions of Duncan Kane/Veronica Mars, Mentions of Logan Echolls/Lilly Kane, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Spin the Bottle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 19:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4576611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueMyth/pseuds/TrueMyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reflection on different moments in Veronica’s relationship with Logan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Time

**Author's Note:**

> Beta’d by alivesometimes and sophia_bee. Cheers also to starspentswell, who knows what Logan tastes like.
> 
> Slowly moving over my old fic from LiveJournal. I can be found now on Tumblr under the same name.

I. First Sight

The first time Veronica Mars saw Logan Echolls, he was leaning with a studied casualness against a set of metal bleachers and staring at her - hard - across the dusty ground of the soccer field. They were both twelve then. His cheeks still had a slight baby-pudge. Her knee socks kept falling down her legs because she hadn’t yet filled in her small frame after her recent growth spurt. It was hard to tell at that distance, but she was pretty sure she was taller than the strangely observant boy.

It was his eyes she remembered the most. Color, actual shape or size, that was hard to determine. But they were dark. And they were piercing. And they trailed down her body - over the golden pigtails, her sweaty face, the dirt and grass streaked soccer uniform, the drooping knee socks - with a thoroughness that was mildly unnerving. Those eyes knew things. Not necessarily carnal things, but they weren’t the eyes of a child anymore. When they jerked back to her face, his eyes locked with hers for a moment. Then one twitched in a sly wink.

Veronica blinked and turned to answer the coach’s call to keep the drill line moving. She wasn’t the only girl who had stopped, and behind her she could hear Amber whispering to Stephanie.

“…Aaron Echolls’ son… favorite movie… our age…could be cute… few years… so hot in _Pursuit of Happiness_ … Logan.”

‘ _Logan_.’

The name stuck in Veronica’s mind as she turned towards the bleachers again, only to see the boy being led away by a man in a tightly pulled baseball cap and large sunglasses. He had a rather firm grip on the boy’s – on ‘ _Logan’s_ ,’ she corrected herself – arm. Logan never looked back.

 

II. First Sound

The first time Veronica Mars heard Logan Echolls, he was laughing at something Duncan Kane had said while he stood propped up on one of the hallway walls on the first day of school. It wasn’t a cruel laugh. It bubbled and jumped in the air. It wasn’t a truly happy laugh either. The sounds seemed almost clipped at the edges, cut short, as if the noise wasn’t a full expression of the emotion. It wasn’t a soft laugh. She heard it from twenty feet away and through a swarm of fellow students. 

The crowd was centered on him, and she wasn’t surprised. Kids had been babbling all summer about having Logan _Echolls_ in their school. Even in Neptune, having a dad that was both hugely famous – he’d done Leno just last week – and fabulously rich – _People_ said he’d been paid 18 million for _Beyond the Breaking Point_ – was something special. His mom had the boys raising some noise too. Even though she’d retired years ago, several of them had stolen pictures of her from their dads’ secret magazines and pinned them to the corner of their beds. Veronica had heard all the gossip and shaken her head.

As Logan’s distinctive laughter trailed off down the hallway, resonating through the other students as much as against the surrounding walls, a broad grin had split his face as he listened to the end of Duncan’s story. His focused eyes still held twinkling echoes of amusement, and Veronica had to admit that Logan himself might have attracted some of the group.

The bell sounded through the hall and the throng surged through the classroom doors. Veronica found herself pressing closer to Duncan and Logan’s group, hoping that she might hear Logan speak. She wanted to determine if his voice held mirth or spite, or perhaps, as she was coming to suspect, a mix of both.

 

III. First Touch

The first time Veronica Mars touched Logan Echolls, he was wearing a soft suede jacket and a smart-assed grin. He’d just finished declaring to Lilly and Duncan that Veronica Mars could _not_ do everything because she utterly sucked at skating. Veronica had gasped in protest as she teetered on her rollerblades and she’d reached out and grabbed Logan’s upper arm. She squeezed slightly, feeling his hard, lean muscle tense beneath her palm, before she was sure enough of her footing to slide her hand down his arm and push firmly away, unbalancing him with both her contact and the unexpected shove. He had fallen backwards towards the asphalt.

Unfortunately, this was also the first time she had roughhoused on skates, and she’d misjudged herself. Her skates flew out from underneath her body and she plummeted forward, pin-wheeling her arms in the air as the two Kanes laughed. Her rough landing on his chest knocked a rush of hot air out of Logan’s mouth, which swept across her flushed forehead, but he had held onto her when her momentum would have bounced her onto the rough beach path. Veronica blinked as she found herself stretched bodily against him.

His arms felt like steel around her as he gripped her shoulders and searched her face in concern. Veronica clutched handfuls of soft, tan suede as she attempted to swing her skate-weighted feet off his legs and stand up. He held her fast and demanded,

“Are you alright?!”

Veronica had nodded and brushed a timid ‘yes’ across his Adam’s apple as she held her gaze tight on his throat. Logan groaned and dropped his head to the ground. His hold became one of support instead of restraint.

“DK, get this little klutz off me, please?” he moaned. “Take her skates while she’s still disoriented. Public service,” he added as an apparent afterthought.

Duncan helped Veronica peel herself off of Logan’s body, and he smiled down at her and offered to teach her to skate. Logan struggled up by himself and skated to Lilly’s side. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Remind me why we brought along wheels three and four on our date?” 

Lilly shushed him as she watched Duncan support Veronica and murmur instructions, and a pleased smile crept up her cheeks.

Veronica had watched the full exchange and she saw the couple touch foreheads before Lilly pulled Logan’s head down for a kiss. Veronica smiled up at Duncan and began to push off with her skates, moving down the path, to give the lovebirds a bit of space.

 

IV. First Taste

The first time Veronica Mars tasted Logan Echolls it had surprised them both. Not the act, because Veronica initiated it and Logan had watched it happening. It was the experience itself that surprised them.

“Don’t wimp out, Veronica!” Lilly had commanded. “I expect a full 10 seconds and tongue action!”

Veronica had held her breath and twirled the glass bottle hard; thinking ‘ _please let it be Duncan. Please let it be Duncan_.’ But the bottle had skittered across the cement until its neck touched Logan’s knee and he dropped his hip flask from his lips and raised inscrutable brown eyes to her shocked blue.

Lilly had clapped.

Duncan had argued.

The others had laughed or looked away in boredom.

Logan simply continued to stare.

And Veronica decided to show Lilly she could be brazen, show Duncan she could kiss better than Shelly Pomroy, show the others she didn’t care what they thought, and show Logan… well, show him that she could get a reaction out of him.

She crawled across the small circle on her hands and knees, maintaining eye contact and feeling her cheeks burn. She moved the bottle deliberately to the side and sat back on her heels as her bare knees brushed the fabric of his corduroy pants. She had almost lost her nerve just in the crossing, but then he moved, a faint twitch of a smirk at the corner of his full lips and she found her determination again and leaned forward.

Her mouth hovered less than an inch from his and she licked her lips.

“Well?” she whispered, watching him.

“This is supposed to be _you_ kissing _me_ ,” he reminded her. The corner of his mouth stretched higher and then was still.

She blew a damp breath of frustration against his passive mouth and, tilting her head slightly, she darted her tongue against the point where his lower and upper lips met. The corner ticked up again. His lips tasted like cherry lip-gloss. He and Lilly had been kissing only a few turns ago. ‘I’ll show you how it’s done,’ Lilly had said before putting on the show. Veronica ran her tongue along the crease of his lips and licked the Lilly-taste off of them as they lay motionless.

She pressed her lips fully to his, then pulled back to hover, feather-light, as his lips parted slightly and their breaths mingled. She slid her tongue out again and tasted the air. Her breath was full of the strawberry birthday-cake she’d eaten. His was scented with whatever liquor he’d been sipping from his flask. Together it was like an airy strawberry daiquiri floating in the narrow space between their lips.

She probed between his lips and discovered that he’d been drinking rum. It was a faint taste, but it was there; sweet and buttery with a slight kick to it, on the soft flesh of his inner lip. Logan opened his mouth wider, allowing her access. She pulled back slightly. She retracted her pink tongue behind her moist lips as they continued to press and glide and their corners turned up in a teasing grin.

Logan frowned against her mouth and halted his hand when it began to rise to her face. He tentatively touched his tongue to the middle of her bottom lip and that was her cue that he would work with her. She stopped holding back, let her eyelids slide closed, released her tongue to play with his, as her hands rested gently on his shoulders.

Deep within, he didn’t taste like cherries or rum. He didn’t taste like Duncan or any other boy. If she had to put a flavor to it, she would say Logan tasted like spiced cider, sweet and earthy, smooth on the tongue, but with a tart bite that tingled in her mouth.

It was a taste she would remember even after the hoots and catcalls of the others broke through and she’d torn her mouth away from him. They looked at each other slightly dazed, but recovered quickly. She took heart in the fact that the smirk was gone from his lips.

She moved back to sit against Duncan who was shaking his head in amused amazement. Lilly beamed proudly. Logan took a swig from his flask, and Veronica watched the muscles of his throat work. She touched her tongue to the middle of her lower lip and she tasted rum again.

When Lilly had handed the empty bottle to Logan and encouraged him to take his turn, his smirk had returned full force. He had pressed the bottle back into her hand, kissed her just as soundly as Veronica had kissed him, and then declared himself tired of this game, and walked back to the house.

Lilly had shrugged and taken her free turn.

 

V. First Scent

The first time Veronica Mars smelled Logan Echolls, truly caught his scent and committed it to memory, he was a huddled mass of grief on the lobby floor of the Sunset Regent. She held him in her arms as he wept away the last of his hope and the first of his grief. Her nose had pressed a moment on the back of his neck as she whispered calming nonsense into his skin.

He hadn’t showered since that morning but the faint sandalwood of his soap was still present. Like sweet, rich earth, it arose from his warm flesh and she inhaled it as she held him to her chest and rocked slightly.

His chest jerked, like he was constantly being stabbed by an unseen assailant with a razor-sharp knife. His whole body jumped as his sobs choked from him and she could only smooth his hair. She allowed him to cling to her and turned her head to murmur words that would probably be no comfort into his ear. She was compelled to try.

His hair smelled like nothing but clean soap. It was such a simple and honest smell for such a complicated boy.

Her feelings were complicated as well. Confused questions swirled in her head.

‘ _She hated him, right? She was his used-to-be friend, but she had never really known him. How could he smell like earth and clean things and be so cruel and biting? How could a father beat his little boy, take a cigarette to his growing son? How could she not hold him close? Would he ever have done the same for her? Had he cried like this for Lilly? How could she hate him now?_ ’

Sandalwood, soap, and sadness filled the air, and gave her no answers.

 

IV. First…?

‘ _Physical firsts are so easy to pin down,_ ’ Veronica thought as she stared at Logan on the balcony of the Camelot Motel. His dark eyes swept her face. He was silent. She could feel the muscles of his arms through his soft leather jacket. She could still taste his familiar tart sweetness on her tongue. Sandalwood filled her nostrils.

She turned and walked quickly down the stairs and to her car. She opened the driver’s side door and looked back at him, still standing where she had left him.

He was her friend, past and present. He might still be her enemy. He was familiarity in a life turned upside down. He had unknown depths and strange secrets that she had only just begun to discover. When she looked at him now, her heart still racing, she felt emotions churning inside her, old and new, comfortable and perplexing, and one which surprised her most of all.

The first time Veronica Mars felt love for Logan Echolls… well, that was the question, wasn’t it?


End file.
